DEATH RAY STOPS MOTOR (May, 1929)

USING portable apparatus weighing less than 50 pounds, the inventor of the so-called “death ray” recently succeeded in stopping the motor of a motorcycle by directing the deadly rays into the vitals of the engine. The photo below shows him just after completing his successful demonstration. He is A. Roberts of London, England. Mr. Roberts claims to be the original inventor of the death ray which he showed to H. Grindell Matthews, who won considerable newspaper publicity through his efforts to dispose of the ray to leading governments for purposes of warfare. The death ray has electricity as its basis, but the inventor refuses to disclose just how he produces his mysterious effects.

In theory, a HERF cannon can disrupt the electronic firing mechanism that is the basis of modern engines. It seems highly unlikely that a HERF cannon could be fit into such a small device, and certainly not with 1929s technology.